Much too fast

This seems like the fastest month ever! Time seems to speed up around now, but I think this sets a new record.

Vacation in Gainesville was wonderful. We got the former closet-now bathroom almost ready, and I got my fill of painting. We had some lovely crown molding to go around the ceiling (because these are 12' high and need some interest) and quickly discovered that 3 master's degrees (between the 2 of us) obviously is not enough to be able to figure out how to cut it correctly. After several cuts (and shrinking molding supply), we turned to the internet and found a nice video. Unfortunately the tools we had weren't quite the right size to manage the very tall molding. So creativity kicked in and Tom came up with the idea of square boxes for the corners, so we could just make straight cuts on the molding instead of trying to miter them. (Pictures will be on teamhenley.net soon)

My dad had his "procedure" in Billings and is recovering nicely (although much slower than he likes; he wanted to be completely back to normal within a week and was a bit frustrated at first). My 2 brothers decided it was important to see him now (and provide some excellent distraction) so came out for Thanksgiving. Jon-Erik also decided this would be a good time for a visit (and I offered this as a Christmas present) so he arranged his flight to meet up with me in Salt Lake City on my return from Texas Thanksgiving Day. We had a fabulous turkey dinner (Mom tried my suggestion of letting a grocery store do the cooking - great idea!), and incredible laughter. It's a wonder no one choked, we were laughing so hard most of the time. Friday we put up their outside lights and Christmas tree, so they are ready for the holidays.

Tom and I also had LifeLine screenings but no urgent medical conditions were discovered at that time - we get results in a few weeks. It's something I'd recommend for anyone - these are tests that don't seem to be done in usual doctor visits.

A few more days to visit with Jon-Erik (he returns to Beaverton Dec. 3) then it's the big holiday madness. But we'll be relatively low-key in our family, so I plan to just enjoy the season.